


Hair Day (Journey to the Roots)

by KainichivonDiamond



Series: Journey to the Roots [2]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Family Bonding, Mullet Stan Pines, Timetrapped Au, return of the younkle, taking advantage of the mullet, timestuck au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 17:11:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20782157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KainichivonDiamond/pseuds/KainichivonDiamond
Summary: A deleted scene from Journey to the Roots written for a friend's birthday.“Your hair is all gross and dirty so it’s perfect for braiding. See?” she lifts up the two pigtailed braids she’d turned her own hair into that he’d apparently completely missed. It was hard to believe she’d fit her mountain of hair into them. “C’mon, let me make you pretty.”





	Hair Day (Journey to the Roots)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ancient_Ouroboros](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ancient_Ouroboros/gifts).

“Younkle Stan, you love me, don’t you?” she asks the question with a face that’s too cute to be threatening and yet very much is. She’s draped over the passenger seat from her place in the back, getting into the space Stan had claimed for himself for the night. A blizzard rages outside, impending their quest to Oregon with a required rest stop.

Stan makes a snorting noise and tugs his hood back over his eyes. He’s pretty sure the answer to the question is yes but emotions are for nerds. “Kid, I literally just met you.” he says dismissively.

There’s a grunting sound and the air is punched out of him as the full weight of his time traveling companion lands square on his stomach. He actually bites his tongue in surprise, which is probably why the string of swears that’s in his heart doesn’t escape his mouth. “What the hell, kid?” he wheezes once he has a bit of breath back.

She’s perched on his stomach, hands flat on his chest and an intense look on her face. “Our bond transcends time, Younkle Stan.”

Stan takes in the fact that her lips are blue and briefly fears she’s going crazy from the cold; he’d given her his jacket they’d just stolen yesterday, plus her own, and what few pieces of clothing he still had for a nest of sorts in the backseat. He couldn’t exactly run the heater all night -- that was a lesson you only had to learn once when living in your car -- but he had hoped she’d be able to keep warm enough. Then he notices that the blue is also around her mouth. “Did you eat something from the backseat?”

“It was only a little bit of Smile Dip, don’t worry, I learned my lesson.” she gives a bit of a bounce on his stomach and slaps his chest. “Besides the point! Younkle Stan, you love me and I can’t sleep so let me braid your hair.”

When did he get Smile Dip? Just the thought of the stuff makes his head hurt. He makes a half hearted attempt to push her off him so he can sit up better, rubbing at his eyes with one hand. “You want to braid my hair?”

“Yeah!” she actually shifts down, sitting now on his stretched out legs instead of his stomach. “Your hair is all gross and dirty so it’s perfect for braiding. See?” she lifts up the two pigtailed braids she’d turned her own hair into that he’d apparently completely missed. It was hard to believe she’d fit her mountain of hair into them. “C’mon, let me make you pretty.”

Stan is rapidly reconsidering how he feels about the kid, beyond his general rejection for his own emotions and the fact that even he knows it’s irrational to love someone you just met. That was how he got two of his ex-wives, after all. He shakes his head, sparing a glance at the darkened snow that has completely coated the front windshield. “Sweetheart, we have a long, annoying drive tomorrow. We should get some sleep.” He’s already dreading seeing Ford again, seeing him completely sleep-deprived is a whole ‘nother layer of rather not. “Get back to your nest. Maybe I can run the heater for a little bit until you get to sleep.” he offers like a consolation.

She actually seems to deflate a bit at that, like someone literally let some air out of her. She ducks her face down and tugs at her braids somewhat anxiously. “...I can’t sleep though.” she says it so quiet that he almost doesn’t hear it over the wind blowing outside.

And he remembers the way she twitched when she fell asleep in the front seat, the way she’d whimpered and clenched her fists. She’d said she didn’t remember what she’d dreamed of but nightmares always left a bad taste. Stan knows that better than most. He really hopes Ford can figure out what was going on with this whole mess; he was so out of his depth here.

Stan sighes and lets his head fall back against the glass, feeling the icy cold stab his scalp through layers of glass and cloth and hair. “One braid.”

Mabel instantly perks up, blue mouth spreading into a wide, metal filled grin. “Twenty!”

“Two.”

“Thirty!”

“You are really bad at haggling, kid.” he chuckles despite himself, raising a brow at her. “Get in the backseat, there’s no way you can do it from up here. You can do two and we’re undoing them as soon as you’re done.”

She surprises him -- she’s really good at that -- by pushing forward and hugging him tight about the neck. “Thank you, Younkle Stan.” and then she’s off him, scrambling with all the gracefulness of a dead opossum. “Alright, let's do this.”

Stan shifts to be sitting in the middle of the seat and tugs his hood down to give her full access to his hair.

Somewhere during the eighth braid and in the middle of Mabel’s story about the time her brother got them banned from a petting zoo by claiming the llama was actually an alien, he fell asleep. He’s not sure exactly what part but he wakes up to every last strand of hair woven into at least two dozen small braids and Mabel back in the front seat, her face slack and resting against his knee as she snores.

He finds himself smiling even if he wants to be annoyed. Emotions are so for nerds and he definitely doesn’t have any ever.

Well, better get his hair under control before they go save their brothers.

**Author's Note:**

> I forgot to post this a couple months ago when I wrote it. But! I eventually remembered to share with all y'all on here.
> 
> Hearts and love. Stay weird, fam.


End file.
